MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky understates the number of Ukrainian soldiers who have died since 2022 by at least three times not to pay compensation to their widows, Verkhovna Rada deputy Alexander Dubinsky said.

"Of course, Zelensky is lying about 55,000 dead. If someone thinks that this is a sign of his being nutty, I will only partially agree. The lying bastard knows exactly what he's doing and why. In this case, he underestimates the losses (at least three times) not to pay compensation to the widows," Dubinsky said on Telegram.

He said if there are 55,000 dead, then compensation to their families amounts to 825 billion hryvnias ($19.1 billion). If 165,000, then 2.475 trillion hryvnias ($57.3 billion).

"This is 30% of the national debt for today. Or 30% of GDP. Whichever way you like it best. But it is impossible to pay this money," the deputy concluded.

Earlier, Zelensky said that 55,000 Ukrainians have been killed since 2022, but acknowledged that a large number of people were missing.

Some Ukrainian and foreign analysts have repeatedly said that the official number of losses called by Kiev is most likely significantly underestimated. Zelensky in February last year mentioned the figure 46,000, but even then he admitted that there were several tens of thousands of "missing persons."

CBS News in April reported that there were about 100,000 dead. Le Monde said in the summer that Kiev deliberately underestimated the number of dead soldiers, while Ukrainian cemeteries were running out of vacant land.

Verkhovna Rada deputy Tatyana Chernovol said that the command positions in the Ukrainian army were occupied mainly by those who sacrificed soldiers, treating them as a resource.